By Jon Chesto Globe Staff,Updated July 21, 2021, 6:30 a.m.48
Tailwind Air has won the race to bring commercial seaplane service to Boston Harbor.
The Rye Brook, N.Y.-based airline is launching ticket sales this week for flights to New York that begin on Aug. 3. It has taken more than five years for Tailwind to get this venture off the ground — or, more accurately, off the water. That’s how long Tailwind and rival Cape Air have been chasing permits, running test flights, and drumming up support among a somewhat skeptical public.
Tailwind received its final approval from the Federal Aviation Administration last week for the Boston-Manhattan flights. The company will start with two round trips a day, grow to four on Aug. 23, and continue them through the end of November. (They’ll start back up again in March.) Chief executive Alan Ram said the trips will take under 90 minutes from dock to dock, allowing passengers to avoid the tunnel and bridge traffic and long security lines that are standard headaches when traveling through the main airports in both cities.
